Omega Operating Characteristics

Geometry Hyperbolic^5
Baseline length 5 000 — 6 000 nautical miles
Frequency band 10 14 kHz
Type o f emission CW (Time sequenced)
Radiated power 10 kW at 10.2 kHz
Coverage Worldwide
Number o f stations 8
Time coverage Full time/All weather
Accuracy :
Conventional mode 1 — 2 nautical miles RMS
Differential or
Relative mode
0.1 — 0.3 nautical mile RMS
(*) Wi th transportable stable f requency standards the Onie^a transmissions may
also be used in a circular geomet ry to direct distance measurement.

Description
Omega was a very long-range Very Low Frequency (VLF) navigation system and
the first navigation system providing true global coverage. The system worked by
generating hyperbolic lines of position (LOP) by means of phase difference
measurements of VLF time-shared transmissions emitted by widely spaced
antennae. It was operated by the United States Coast Guard, in partnership with
six other nations, from the early 1970's until 1997 when it was decommissioned.

The Omega System

Omega was a worldwide, ground-based radio navigation system, operating in the
very low frequency (VLF) band between 10 and 14 kilohertz (kHz). Its purpose was
to provide a continuous, medium accuracy aid to navigation which was intended
primarily for marine oceanic navigation and for both domestic and oceanic air
navigation. The nominal fix accuracy of Omega was two to four nautical miles
(nm),

The Omega system consisted of eight widely separated transmitting stations that
emitted continuous wave VLF signals. An Omega receiver could determine
position from range measurements based on the phase of the received signals
from two or more Omega stations, or by phase comparisons between signals of
selected pairs of Omega stations, which produced intersecting lines of position
(LOP).

The Omega System consisted of three major elements:

 Transmitting System
 Signals in the Earth-Ionosphere Medium
 Receivers and Navigation Computers.
Although each of these major elements could be considered a separate entity, the
overall system performance and the ability to navigate with Omega depended
upon the performance of each element.

Transmitting System
The Transmitting System consisted of a total of eight transmitting stations located
around the globe and the procedures required to maintain and synchronize those
stations. The eight Omega stations were identified by a letter from A through H
and were located as depicted below.

Omega Transmitting Stations Source:WikiCommons

 A: Bratland, Norway
 B: Paynesville, Liberia
 C: Kaneoke, Hawaii, USA
 D: Lamoure, North Dakota, USA
 E: Plaine Chabrier, LaReunion
 F: Golfo Nuevo, Chalut, Argentina
 G: Woodside, Victoria, Australia
 H: Shushi-Wan, Tsushima Island, Japan

The primary components of each transmitting station included the timing

equipment required to synchronise their transmission with all of the other
stations, a VLF transmitter and the antenna system. By necessity, the antenna
required for a VLF signal is very large requiring massive towers or creative use of
topographical features. The Omega system made use of three different types of
antenna: valley-span, grounded tower, or an insulated tower depending on
location.

A synchronization process was required to integrate the otherwise autonomous

stations into a system thus making it possible to use the signals to compute a
position fix anywhere in the world. In simple terms, an ideal system would derive
the signals for each transmitter from a single common frequency source. This
would guarantee that each station would transmit its signal at exactly the same
time with exactly the same phase. However, the physical separation of the Omega
transmitter sites made it unrealistic to use a single frequency source for all eight
stations. Instead, the Omega system made use of atomic clocks.

Each Omega station derived its transmitted frequencies from cesium oscillators
(commonly referred to as a clock or frequency standard). These devices generate
a frequency that is highly stable over long periods of time. On a weekly basis, the
system was subject to a synchronization procedure to correct any small shifts in
the transmitted signal phase at each station. Consequently, at the receiver, all
eight transmitters appeared to be operating from a single frequency source.

All stations transmitted four common frequencies: 10.2 kHz, 11.05 kHz, 11 1/3
kHz, and 13.6 kHz, In addition to these common frequencies, each station also
transmitted a unique frequency to allow a receiver to unambiguously identify the
station. Transmissions were sequenced in a specified format so that no two
stations would transmit on the same frequency at the same time. A continuous
wave was transmitted by each station on one of its five frequencies during each
transmission segment for 0.9 to 1.2 sec with a 0.2 sec silent interval between
segments, The complete format repeated every 10 sec. The sequence of the
frequencies transmitted by each station in each of the eight time segments was
unique thus providing the receiver with additional information to identify the
source of the received signal.
Signal Propagation
The signal from each of the Omega transmission sites was "launched" by the
antenna into the atmosphere between the earth and the lower ionosphere. There
it would propagates in all directions for several thousand miles or, under some
conditions, completely around the world. Ideally, the signals would travel with
uniform intensity and phase in all directions. However, VLF signals are influenced
by various physical and electrical factors.

These factors meant that the phase of the Omega signals was not a simple,
uniformly increasing function of distance from the transmitter as would be
experienced in free space, Therefore, propagation corrections had to be applied
to the phase measurements to obtain accurate position fixes. With early
receivers, the navigator used propagation correction (PPC) tables to manually
correct the fix prior to plotting the information. Later receivers were able to
automatically apply the corrections using database information.

Navigation Computers
The typical Omega user equipment suite consisted of an antenna, receiver, and a
navigation computer.

The receiver was used to detect and track the signals from each visible station and
measured the phase of the signals relative to a local reference. The number of
frequencies simultaneously tracked depended on the particular receiver. The
receiver also identified the station that transmitted each of the frequencies in
each transmission segment. Station indentification was a necessary component to
allow calculation of the range between the receiver and each transmitting station.
Since the location (latitude and longitude) of the stations was accurately known,
some form of multilateration was used by the navigation computer to determine
the latitude and longitude of the receiver.

The signal wavelength of 10.2 kHz, the primary Omega navigation frequency, is
about 16 nm. In terms of range from a specific station, each wavelength was
referred to as a lane. Within each lane, the signal phase varied from 0 to 360 deg.
The Omega receiver was designed to measure the phase of the Omega signal
within a given lane. As the range to the transmitter is equal to the number of
whole lanes plus the fractional part of the lane indicated by the phase
measurement, the receiver must "know" or keep track of the number of whole
 lanes. This was normally achieved by accurately initialising the position of the
receiver at the point of departure.

The navigation computer could determine position in one of two ways, by direct
ranging or by hyperbolic (range difference) calculations. Direct ranging involved
making distance calculations to two or more stations and then plotting
intersecting arcs on a chart to determine position. Digital computers could "plot"
these arcs electronically and display the position as a latitude and longitude. In
hyperbolic mode, the calculations were based on the difference in signal phase
between pairs of transmitters which produced hyperbolic lines of position. In the
early days of Omega, paper charts with precalculated LOPs depicted were used to
plot position. Well before the decommissioning of the Omega system in 1997,
advances in digital navigation computers had automated the fix determination
process and the processor used all available transmitted signals to maximise the
accuracy of the displayed position.

operational around 1971 and was shut down in 1997 in favour of the Global
Positioning System.

Contents

 1History
o 1.1Previous systems
o 1.2Atomic clocks
o 1.3OMEGA
 2Court case
 3OMEGA stations
o 3.1Bratland Omega Transmitter
o 3.2Trinidad Omega Transmitter
o 3.3Paynesville Omega Transmitter
o 3.4Kaneohe Omega Transmitter
o 3.5La Moure Omega Transmitter
o 3.6Chabrier Omega Transmitter
o 3.7Trelew Omega Transmitter
o 3.8Woodside Omega Transmitter
o 3.9Omega Tower, Tsushima
 4OMEGA test locations
o 4.1Forestport Tower
 5Cultural importance
 6See also
 7Bibliography
 8References
 9External links

History[edit]
Previous systems[edit]
Taking a "fix" in any navigation system requires the determination of two
measurements. Typically these are taken in relation to fixed objects like
prominent landmarks or the known location of radio transmission towers. By
measuring the angle to two such locations, the position of the navigator can be
determined. Alternately, one can measure the angle and distance to a single
object, or the distance to two objects.
The introduction of radio systems during the 20th century dramatically increased
the distances over which measurements could be taken. Such a system also
demanded much greater accuracies in the measurements – an error of one
degree in angle might be acceptable when taking a fix on a lighthouse a few miles
away, but would be of limited use when used on a radio station 300 miles
(480 km) away. A variety of methods were developed to take fixes with relatively
small angle inaccuracies, but even these were generally useful only for short-
range systems.
The same electronics that made basic radio systems work introduced the
possibility of making very accurate time delay measurements, and thus highly
accurate distance measurements. The problem was knowing when the
transmission was initiated. With radar, this was simple, as the transmitter and
receiver were usually at the same location. Measuring the delay between sending
the signal and receiving the echo allowed accurate range measurement.
For other uses, air navigation for instance, the receiver would have to know the
precise time the signal was transmitted. This was not generally possible using
electronics of the day. Instead, two stations were synchronized by using one of
the two transmitted signals as the trigger for the second signal after a fixed delay.
By comparing the measured delay between the two signals, and comparing that
with the known delay, the aircraft's position was revealed to lie along a curved
line in space. By making two such measurements against widely separated
stations, the resulting lines would overlap in two locations. These locations were
normally far enough apart to allow conventional navigation systems, like dead
reckoning, to eliminate the incorrect position solution.
The first of these hyperbolic navigation systems was the UK'S Gee and Decca,
followed by the US LORAN and LORAN-C systems. LORAN-C offered accurate
navigation at distances over 1,000 kilometres (620 mi), and by locating "chains" of
stations around the world, they offered moderately widespread coverage.
Atomic clocks[edit]
Key to the operation of the hyperbolic system was the use of one transmitter to
broadcast the "master" signal, which was used by the "secondaries" as their
trigger. This limited the maximum range over which the system could operate. For
very short ranges, tens of kilometres, the trigger signal could be carried by wires.
Over long distances, over-the-air signalling was more practical, but all such
systems had range limits of one sort or another.
Very long distance radio signalling is possible, using longwave techniques (low
frequencies), which enables a planet-wide hyperbolic system. However, at those
ranges, radio signals do not travel in straight lines, but reflect off various regions
above the Earth known collectively as the ionosphere. At medium frequencies,
this appears to "bend" or refract the signal beyond the horizon. At lower
frequencies, VLF and ELF, the signal will reflect off the ionosphere and ground,
allowing the signal to travel great distances in multiple "hops". However, it is very
difficult to synchronize multiple stations using these signals, as they might be
received multiple times from different directions at the end of different hops.
The problem of synchronizing very distant stations was solved with the
introduction of the atomic clock in the 1950s, which became commercially
available in portable form by the 1960s. Depending upon type,
e.g. rubidium, caesium, hydrogen, the clocks had an accuracy on the order of 1
part in 1010 to better than 1 part in 1012 or a drift of about 1 second in 30 million
years. This is more accurate than the timing system used by the
master/secondary stations.
By this time the Loran-C and Decca Navigator systems were dominant in the
medium-range roles, and short-range was well served by VOR and DME. The
expense of the clocks, lack of need, and the limited accuracy of a long wave
system eliminated the need for such a system for many roles.
However, the United States Navy had a distinct need for just such a system, as
they were in the process of introducing the TRANSIT satellite navigation system.
TRANSIT was designed to allow measurements of location at any point on the
planet, with enough accuracy to act as a reference for an inertial navigation
system (INS). Periodic fixes re-set the INS, which could then be used for
navigation over longer periods of time and distances.
TRANSIT had the distinct disadvantage that it generated two possible locations for
any given measurements. This is true for hyperbolic systems like Loran as well,
but the distance between the two locations is a function of the accuracy of the
system, and in the case of TRANSIT this was close enough together that other
navigation systems would not provide the accuracy needed to resolve which was
correct. Loran offered enough accuracy to resolve the fix, but did not have the
global scope of TRANSIT. This produced the need for a new system with global
coverage and accuracy on the order of a few kilometres (miles). The combination
of TRANSIT and OMEGA produced a highly accurate global navigation system.
OMEGA[edit]

The Communications Control Link building of the Naval Radio Station at Haiku,
part of the Kaneohe Omega Transmitter, 1987
Omega was approved for development in 1968 with eight transmitters and the
ability to achieve a 4-mile (6.4 km) accuracy when fixing a position. Each Omega
station transmitted a sequence of three very low frequency (VLF) signals
(10.2 kHz, 13.6 kHz, 11.333... kHz in that order) plus a fourth frequency which was
unique to each of the eight stations. The duration of each pulse (ranging from 0.9
to 1.2 seconds, with 0.2 second blank intervals between each pulse) differed in a
fixed pattern, and repeated every ten seconds; the 10-second pattern was
common to all 8 stations and synchronized with the carrier phase angle, which
itself was synchronized with the local master atomic clock. The pulses within each
10-second group were identified by the first 8 letters of the alphabet within
Omega publications of the time.
The envelope of the individual pulses could be used to establish a receiver's
internal timing within the 10-second pattern. However, it was the phase of the
received signals within each pulse that was used to determine the transit time
from transmitter to receiver. Using hyperbolic geometry and radionavigation
principles, a position fix with an accuracy on the order of 5–10 kilometres (3.1–
6.2 mi) was realizable over the entire globe at any time of the day. Omega
employed hyperbolic radionavigation techniques and the chain operated in the
VLF portion of the spectrum between 10 and 14 kHz. Near the end of its service
life of 26 years, Omega evolved into a system used primarily by the civil
community. By receiving signals from three stations, an Omega receiver could
locate a position to within 4 nautical miles (7.4 km) using the principle of phase
comparison of signals.[1]
Omega stations used very extensive antennas to transmit at their very low
frequencies (VLF). This is because wavelength is inversely proportional to
frequency (wavelength in metres = 299,792,458 / frequency in Hz), and
transmitter efficiency is severely degraded if the length of the antenna is shorter
than 1/4 wavelength. They used grounded or insulated guyed masts with
umbrella antennas, or wire-spans across both valleys and fjords. Some Omega
antennas were the tallest constructions on the continent where they stood or still
stand.

Omega Tower Paynesville, Liberia

When six of the eight station chain became operational in 1971, day-to-day
operations were managed by the United States Coast Guard in partnership
with Argentina, Norway, Liberia, and France. The Japanese and Australian stations
became operational several years later. Coast Guard personnel operated two US
stations: one in LaMoure, North Dakotaand the other in Kaneohe, Hawaii on the
island of Oahu.
Due to the success of the Global Positioning System, the use of Omega declined
during the 1990s, to a point where the cost of operating Omega could no longer
be justified. Omega was shut down permanently on 30 September 1997. Several
of the towers were then soon demolished.
Some of the stations, such as the LaMoure station, are now used for submarine
communications.

Court case[edit]
In 1976 the Decca Navigator Company of London sued the United States
government over patent infringements, claiming that the Omega system was
based on a proposed earlier Decca system known as DERLAC, Decca Long Range
Area Coverage,[2] that had been disclosed to the US in 1954. Decca cited original
US documents showing the Omega system was originally referred to
as DERLAC/Omega. Decca won the case and was awarded $44,000,000 in
damages. Decca had previously sued the US government for alleged patent
infringements over the LORAN C system in 1967. Decca won its case, but as the
navigation system was judged to be a military one, no damages were paid by the
US.[1]